Sony Looks to 'LittleBigPlanet' Start to Boost Console Sales

Advertising Age posts an article about Sony betting on the popularity of 'LittleBigPlanet' star, Sackboy, to boost its console sales. Sony plans to put a big marketing push behind Sackboy. Sony is partnering with retailers to offer two presale-only, downloadable Sackboy characters from a couple of Sony's other popular first-party games: Kratos from "God of War" and Nariko from "Heavenly Sword." Sony also plans to create about 1,000 "LittleBig billboards."

Analysts seem to think Sackboy has a good shot at lifting PS3. According to NPD Group, through June, PS3 -- which got a later start than chief rival Xbox 360 -- had sold 4.9 million units vs. Xbox 360's 10.5 million and Wii's 10.9 million since their introductions.

Nintendo uses a similar approach building a variety of their consoles around Mario-based games. And this is a great approach since Nintendo is perceived by consumers to produce less "hardcore" games (e.g. not as much blood and guts). In fact, games like Wii Fit and Super Smash Brothers Brawl have helped increase Wii sales. Also, Microsoft has does a good job promoting its Xbox and Xbox 360 consoles around the Halo series, but I think Halo reaches out to the gaming audience the Xbox 360 is targeting.

Sony PS3 attracts a different type of gamer; It attracts more of the hardcore gamer. Games such as Call of Duty 4, Metal Gear Solid 3, Grand Theft Auto IV and Warhawk are some of the more popular games on the PS3. Sony also has the market cornered with its support of Blu-Ray.

I haven't played Little Big Planet, but it doesn't appear to be a "hardcore" game from what I can see. Sony may need to re-position the PS3 altogether if it wants to use a similar approach to Nintendo and put most of its marketing support behind a specific character or game, especially one that may not be of interest to its "hardcore" audience.

Feel free to leave comments if you have any experiences playing Little Big Planet or other games.


Source: AdAge

New Search Engine Popping Up

I came across two new search engines, http://www.cuil.com and http://www.viewzi.com. Cuil is a little more text driven while Viewzi returns more visual results. Some consumers posting on an article at Ad Age debate whether Viewzi could eventually replace Google.

I checked out Viewzi on my on own to see how it works. I found the search engine to be counter intuitive at first; however, I think it may catch on eventually. I don't think Viewzi will be the search engine to knock off Google. First, I don't think the name is as catchy as Google. Can you imagine people saying, "I'm going to Viewzi this." Google is synonymous with the word search online. Any search engine looking to pass Google will have to become a household name.

I feel the next tool to pass Google will have to be a hybrid between Yahoo, Google and major blog search engines and social media sites. Competitors looking to pass Google will need to put more into innovation and search capabilities. Additionally, they will need to incorporate social media attributes (e.g. creating online social communities and building out blog search tools).

Source: http://adage.com/digitalnext/article?article_id=130111

Batman Gets Most Buzz Online

The trend graph to the left shows Batman(Christian Bale) getting the most buzz followed by Joker (Heath Ledger) and Two Face (Aaron Eckhart).

The Joker played by Heath Ledger received most of its buzz when actor Heath Ledger died on January 22, 2008.

Los Angeles Sparks Use Interactive Ads

Seeking new ticket buyers, the Los Angeles Sparks women's pro basketball team recently tried a new ad play: A TV commercial during which viewers could press a button on their remote to get a team brochure. I wouldn't be surprised to see more advertisers start using creative ideas to get capture the attention of television viewers.

Source: http://m.usatoday.com/BETTER/detail.jsp?key=865848

2008 Beijing Olympic Coke Cans

I really like Coca-Cola's new 2008 Beijing Olympic cans! I think the vibrant colors and interesting font really helps the cans stand out. How does everyone else feel about Coke's new cans?

Sears Holdings Reports $56 Million Loss

The parent company of Sears, Roebuck & Co. and Kmart reported a $56 million loss for the quarter ended May 3 on Thursday May 29, 2008. Natalie Zmuda at Ad Age says,

"During the quarter, sales at Sears' domestic stores open at least a year slumped 9.8%, while same-store sales dropped 7.1% at Kmart. Same-store sales declined across most of its major categories domestically, including the apparel, home appliance and lawn and garden segments. The company said weakness at its stores reflects the impact of rising gas and food prices on its consumers, as well as the weak housing market."

Overall, I agree with Zmuda's assessment. However, there are a few things that Sears can do to improve its sales during a slow economy. For starters, it needs to focus on improving employee moral and the customer experience at some locations.

I took a part-time job at a local Sears automotive center last summer but found employee moral to be rather low. Employee moral was lower than I expected, especially compared to other retailers that I've worked for.

Sears needs to focus on improving the customer experience. Very rarely due I encounter a Sears employee full of knowledge and helpfulness. Again, I think focusing on employee moral may help improve the customer experience.

These are just a few of my opinions. Obviously, my expereiences with Sears pertain largely to locations in Southwest Ohio. Nonetheless, a $56 million loss indicates that my experiences may have contributed to Sears' poor quarterly results. Hopefully Sears will get things turned around.

A key problem for Sears is that it doesn't position itself from competition. Is it a low-cost leader? No, that would go to Wal-Mart. Does Sears offer the highest quality products? Sears may offer the highest quality products, but it doesn't relay that via its marketing campaigns. I think of JC Penney's, Macy*s and Nordstrom when it comes to offering quality products. Does Sears offer the best service? Again, it may offer great service, but Saks Fifth Avenue and Nordstrom are more known for their outstanding service.

Sears offers great products (e.g. Craftsman tools and Diehard batteries) but needs to find its market niche and exploit it. Hopefully it will.

Coors Speeding Competitors

Advertising Age reports that Coors' four largest brands are all growing quicker than competitors. However, Budweiser is receiving the most online buzz within the blogosphere as a result of its Super Bowl advertising.



I'm not sure if Coors partakes in any social media activities, however, it may want to rethink its strategy. Improving its presence will only help strengthen its position. Additionally, it can use CGM (Consumer Generated Media) to help bolster its partnership with the NFL as Coors is the official sponsor. Unfortunately, many consumers may not be aware especially with Budweiser garnering so much buzz around the Super Bowl.

Coke Looks to Bring Home the Gold Medal

Coke is set to launch an Olympic blitz campaign according to Ad Age. The campaign includes Multilingual Containers, Athlete Vignettes, Online Contests, Music Project.

Have Your Realized Twitter's Potential?

Here are a "free" few tools I've come across to help find what you're looking for on Twitter.

http://www.tweetscan.com/ - Tweetscan allows users to search for Twitter results via queries. This is a great way to follow topics of interest.

http://www.twist.flaptor.com/ - Twist.flaptor.com allows users to see Trends in Twitter.

http://www.xefer.com/twitter - Allows users to follow follow tweets (people using Twitter).

Feel free to ping me if you have any questions regarding these tools.

Marketing During a Recession

Advertising Age posted an article regarding consumers' spending habits during a down economy. The author, Eric Spahr, encourages brands to continue to do several things, as the economy heads into a recession. Those things include the following:

1. Observe consumers' behavior
2. Understand the new competitive set
3. Find out emotions behind consumers' behaviors
4. Continue to build brand equity

Consumers will make decisions about which brands they will remain loyal to. Some consumers may give up their Starbucks coffee every morning while others may forgo using their summer vacations. Given this, the current state of the economy will mean that marketers will have to do a better job rewarding loyal consumers.

A recession should not be viewed as a inconvenience or a roadblock in a marketers way. Good marketers will seize the opportunity to be creative and find new ways to reach out to consumers. Now is the time for marketers to find creative ways to reach out to consumers (e.g. social media) and build consumer loyalty.

Online Consumers Speak Negatively about the Economy

I've been monitoring online buzz about the economy over the past few months and I've found some interesting results. I will start of by showing a trend of economy discussion online from October 1, 2007 through March 31, 2008.

Economy Discussion Trend














Discussion about the economy is trending upwards. Recent spikes in buzz are largely caused by consumers discussing bank mergers and their opinions of the economy. Below is a key highlighting several call-outs on the trend line.

Key Events Creating Buzz:
A. 10/29/07 - Merrill Lynch reports $7.9 billion write-down.
Merrill Lynch’s CEO, Stan O’Neal and Citi’s CEO, Charles Prince resign.
B. 12/6/07 – Consumers discuss President Bush’s mortgage plan.
C. 1/7/08: Bears Stearns’ CEO James Cayne resigns
D. 1/13/2008 – Consumers discuss the BoA Countrywide merger.
E. 1/21/2008 - 1/22/08: U.S. Federal Reserve announces surprise 0.75% rate cut; DJIA loses 400 points as global markets name the day, “Black Monday.”
F. JP Morgan buys Bear Stearns for $2 a share

Additionally, I have been tracking sentiment among consumers talking about the economy online in two month intervals since October 2007. More consumers have a mixed / negative outlook on the economy from December 1 – March 31, 2008 compared to the October 1 – November 30, 2007. An increase in negative buzz results from consumers expressing their concerns about the U.S. economy potentially going into a recession from December 1 through January 31, 2008. However, negative buzz February 1 through March 31, 2008 emanates from consumers discussing potential fraud and ethics violations associated with the subprime debacle.














Listed below are a few sample verbatim to support my most recent findings. Consumers speculating about whether fraud played a role in the subprime meltdown express their discontent online.

“[Big News: Subprime Lenders Get Big Accounting Break At Sec]… I thinks that's important news, or exists there another thread on it. FFS, they will just be allowed to hide it all. “
Housepricecrash.co.uk, 2008-02-01


“Blaming all this on the gov is a good start, Grizz. But it seems all the congress wants to do his slap down the lenders, even though they were the ones who encouraged this practice. The left wanted low income folks; ie people who can't afford a house to have a really really big one. They caused the problem, now all they want to to is fleece the mortgage companies and responsible borrowers for doing want was expected from them. Blaming all this on Bush is inaccurate, but typical. I do not blame it ALL on the government, because crooks and con men will always find a way. Your weak attempt to whitewash this administration in particular and the general anti-regulation enforcement tilt of Republicans in general just doesn't wash. Government regulations exist because of those who would take advantage of people in just about any situation, whether it be the food on your table, drugs in your medicine cabinet, or a virtually incomprehensive mortgage instrument. Point of fact, the regulators, if they existed at all, were asleep at the switch on the sub-prime mess and the bankers were no less culpable with their bottomless greed”
Democracyforums.com, 2008-02-27


“I'm would never vote for McCain, I would rather write-in a vote for Minny Mouse (which is what I am leaning towards at this point). But I still have a hard time accepting that me, the tax payer, has to be part of the solution that was the sub-prime mortgage scandal. The companies that profited off of these actions should be the ones to bail the people out. Why do I have to be the one to fix others financial mistakes ? Next thing you know we will have to bail out folks who take super high interest credit cards because they did not read the small print. People should have some sort of responsibility for their actions and should not be bailed out by the rest of us who are able to make smarter decisions when it comes to our finances.”
Forums.nasioc.com, 2008-03-10


-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Notes:
1. Buzz volume is depicted as a percentage of 433,173,653 total messages by day occurring between October 1, 2007 and March 31, 2008
2. Information about “Black Monday” 2008 can be found at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Monday_(January_2008)
3. Given time constraints (e.g. work, life in general), I was only able to sample a 100 random messages about the economy per time frame. Therefore, I would not consider these findings to be statistically significant, but more directional.

Marketers Buying Ads for Packaged Goods

Advertising Age reports package-goods marketers still spending big on media. At least some things never change!

I'm LinkedIn, Are you?

I recently joined LinkedIn. You can see my profile at http://www.linkedin.com/pub/7/bb1/752. Also, please let me know if you are a member of LinkedIn. I am interested in learning about other peoples' experiences using LinkedIn.

Remembering Pepsi

Advertising Age reports on Pepsi's new marketing campaign to promote recycling. It is called, "Have we met before."

"Our goal is to reenergize consumers about recycling," said Nicole Bradley, a Pepsi spokeswoman. "We've learned that most people will recycle when they remember, so we thought the 'Have we met before?' program [would be] a great way to remind people about the positive impact of recycling."

Overall, I think this campaign is a great idea. However, I'm skeptical whether consumers will notice initially. The print looks rather small on the side of the can. Additionally, any call outs below a Pepsi-related product (e.g. Pepsi can) in a traditional advertisement may be overlooked.

Personally, I would recommend Pepsi to set up a special website like they did with their MLB (Major League Baseball) sponsorship. Pepsi listed a website on the side of each can which directed consumers to www.pepsiclutch.mlb.com via a tie in with MLB. However, the print was very small as I just recently noticed to website on the side of the can. Hopefully, Pepsi will take a similar approach with its new campaign to encourage recycling.

Pepsi could list interesting information regarding recycling and packaging information on such a dedicated website. It would be a great resource for consumers interested in finding out information about Pepsi's stance on environmental issues.

Google Maps Features YouTube

Google maps are starting to incorporate YouTube. This should make search for places more interesting. I wonder what will video will show up if I look-up my local dentists.


















You can read more about this new feature at Mashable, a social networking news site.

Coke Zero Buzz Trending Downward Despite NCAA Marketing Push

Overall, online buzz about Coke Zero is trending downwards despite a strong marketing push during the 2007-08 NCAA Men's Basketball tournament. It will be interesting to see how Coca-Cola's financials look after this quarter given the huge marketing-related expenses allocated toward Coke Zero.

Coke Zero Online buzz January 1 - April 10, 2008

Twitter Without the Jargon

I came across an interesting video on YouTube demonstrating how to utilize Twitter in everyday normal life. Overall, I think the video highlights some of Twitter's strengths. However, I feel Twitter can be improved if people can go beyond simply anwering, "What are you doing?" Consumers need to be able to state what they are doing, discuss how they feel and provide opinions. For instance, someone watching a movie could Twitter, "I am watching a great movie and I highly recommend others to check it out!" Additionally, I'd like to be able to state what I plan to do in the future (both short term and long term). Twitter has all the right ingredients to become something big. However, it still has a ways to go.

Also, I think Twitter needs to find a way to allow companies to utilize its tool. As a marketer, Twitter would be a great tool to inform potential customers about new products and services being developed and/or offered. I would love to Twitter information about my companies products and services knowing thousands of followers could view them. The presidential candidate John McCain currently utilizes Twitter. I can envision a day when marketers will be able to as well.

Anyways, you can follow me at Twitter by searching for rcoyle85 at Twitter. Also, please let me know if you use Twitter now or plan to use it in the future.

FriendFolio Makes Facebook More Interesting

Check out FriendFolio. This will make Facebook more interesting.

You can read more about FriendFolio at Mashable, a social networking news site.

McDonald's Tries to Lure Fashion Crowd

Ad Age reports that McDonald's is trying to lure a couture crowd. Apparently, McDonald's feels that fashion freaks and fastfood-goers have a lot in common. They both look for great deals. McDonald's hopes to attract new crowds with discount offerings, value pricing and lighter fare menus.

Personally, I feel the idea may work in select markets (i.e. New York City, Los Angeles among other significant metropolitan areas). However, I don't think it will be easy to attract the fashion crowd in more suburban and country areas. Additionally, McDonald's should think about doing some joint marketing with brands like Macy*s, Nordstrom or Saks Fifth Avenue to reach out to the fashion crowd. Furthermore, sponsoring fashion events or shows like "What Not to Wear" may help McDonald's reach out to the couture crowd that is always looking for great products at the right prices.

Scribd Becomes the YouTube for Documents

This is an interesting post about Scribd that was featured on Mashable, a social networking news site.

Let me know what you think!